LEFT LOVES A LIAR

Tim Blair

–,
Monday,
January,
14,
2013,(2:00pm)

A few days before the 2007 federal election, several Liberal party members met in Penrith to carry out a dirty trick.

Led by Gary Clark, husband of retiring member for Lindsay Jackie Kelly, the group composed a bogus document claiming to be from “The Islamic Australia Foundation”. The crudely-manufactured work, complete with misspellings and outdated logos, indicated extremist Islamic support for the Labor party.

As they attempted to distribute copies of the slur in suburban letterboxes, the hoaxers were photographed by members of the ALP who’d been tipped off from within the Liberal party. Media outrage, police charges and party expulsions followed. Then-Prime Minister John Howard, along with just about everybody from all sides of politics, slammed the dishonest tactic. “I have condemned it,” said Howard. “I’ve dissociated myself from it. I think it’s stupid, it’s offensive, it’s wrong, it’s untrue.”

Last week anti-coal activist Jonathan Moylan, who describes himself as a “Christian anarchist”, attempted a similar stunt. He produced a press release claiming to be from the ANZ that announced the bank’s withdrawal from funding a new coal mine. Contacted by journalists, Moylan presented himself as an ANZ representative.

Several media outlets, among them the Australian Financial Review, fell for the trick, which quickly led to Whitehaven Coal losing some $300 million in share value. Compared to the bungling Liberal gang of 2007, Moylan was rather more successful.

There’s another significant difference between these otherwise similar incidents. Instead of being condemned for his lies, 24-year-old Moylan has become a hero to the Greens and many others on the left, who now endorse outright fraud as a legitimate political device.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon took to Twitter one day after Moylan’s scam: “Congrats to Jonathan Moylan, Frontline Action on Coal, for exposing ANZ investment in coalmines.” Greens leader Christine Milne said that Moylan’s lies were “part of a long and proud history of civil disobedience, potentially breaking the law, to highlight something wrong”. Former Greens candidate Clive Hamilton swooned: “Often those who engage in civil disobedience are otherwise the most law-abiding citizens. They are those who have most regard for the social interest and the keenest understanding of the democratic process.”

Ex-Greens leader Bob Brown topped them all. “History is full of this,” wrote the great earthian, who is full of something himself. “Gandhi and Mandela went to jail. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Jesus Christ turned up at the businessmen’s tables and look what happened to him. Anti-slavery campaigner John Brown’s ‘body lies mouldering in the grave’ and suffragette Emily Davidson was killed when she ran in front of the horses at the 1913 Epsom Derby.”

All it takes to become a modern Jesus/Gandhi/Mandela for the Greens is one fake press release. The martyr bar isn’t set very high these days. Naturally, the ABC also leapt to Moylan’s defence. Here’s the opening paragraph from an ABC piece published last Thursday: “The activist who caused a $314 million temporary plunge in Whitehaven Coal’s share price could face 10 years in jail, despite having no intention of personally profiting from his fake press release.”

Note the concluding excuse-making sentence, which – as some web commentators observed – the ABC really ought to include in other reports. For example: “The arsonists who caused widespread destruction could face years in prison, despite having no intention of personally profiting from their fires.” If lack of a profit motive mitigates against jail sentences, a great many rapists and murderers are currently imprisoned unjustly.

Fairfax, too, were hot for Moylan. “If letters pages and social media are any indication, there is widespread support for Moylan’s hoax,” wrote academic Katherine Wilson. “To charge him with a criminal offence would be utterly immoral.”

So, now that we’ve all moved on from 2007 and are now accepting lies for political causes, I’ve been having some online fun myself by whipping up a few bogus Greens press releases. It’s only fair, seeing as they so strongly endorse this kind of thing.

Creating these mock media statements is a simple matter of photoshopping new words into the Greens’ media announcement website. So far they’ve called for a minute’s silence in Parliament to honour the memory of “intergeneration intimacy pioneer” Dennis Ferguson, demanded that asylum seekers be billetted throughout western suburban bedrooms and sought an increase in abortions to provide NVHP ("non-viable human protein") fuel for sustainable, coal-free power generators.

Some readers have fallen for the fake media statements, which I guess shows just how many AFR journalists are out there. Of course, Greens supporters aren’t impressed. “Wow. Disgraceful,” wrote one Twitter identity. “My God,” gasped another.

Get used to it, babies. The Greens have set this standard. It’s just “part of a long and proud history of civil disobedience”. And, to reassure the ABC, no profit is involved.

As Midnight Oil said: “The time has come to say fair’s fair.” I think the time has come for the Greens as well. The warm fuzzy green faze daze is over. When the ALP distances itself from them, you know it is over. Reality is slowly being reinstated and the green magic spell is over

I just hope idiots like Brown, Rhiannon, Milne, Hamilton et al keeping banging on about their new love child Moylan long enough for the average punter to realise how morally bankrupt, unethical and thoroughly detached from reality these socialist parasites actually are.

Assuming for a moment that the end just might justify the means. We have a probable end result from Moylan’s little effort which could amount to nothing more than a little economic damage together with substantial loss of respect for some of our elected representatives.

On the other hand, with the end result now well known, the “Islamic Australia Foundation” nonsense (had they not been sprung) would most likely have saved this entire country from 4-5 years of regression - something which will take many years to rectify - if at all.

If pain has not been felt by those in the electorate that do not watch what politicians are up to, then we will be doomed to repeat the Labor experiment again and sooner. Just take a look see at Victoria. Now an honest press may take same pains to point out that the Vic government is broke and is trying to get some cash in, so that they may indulge in major projects. No the supposed newspaper the Herald Sun just plays the same old left wing game that we hear from everyone else. You could be forgiven if you thought the pain from the desal plant etc was now past and we can just move on. What sort of morons do the media hire?

I would have received a different response from the luvvies if Moylan had done the same thing to say a solar panel or wind turbine manufacturer, I’m sure.

We most definitely know that the Labor and the Green things love the truth, not. I cannot wait for the run up to the election and see how this pit of political snakes counter this and other monumental acts of mendacity.

Having clearly established the principle that a outright lie told in support of what the Greens see as “the national interest” is perfectly acceptable, how confident can voters now be that Green politicians will follow their advertised programs.

What they say they will do might just be an expedient lie to get your vote, and then dump the advertised program for what they really believe is in “the national interest.” It’s the same principle that they’ve just established, so why not?

Yes. We were much better off in John Howard’s day. We were not morally bankrupt. We were not led by a conglomeration of liars, cheats and fraudsters. We were also financially as well as spiritually better off then too. I hold great hope that our moral well being will be righted by Tony Abbott as PM, however it is going to be a long hard slog before the damage to our nation’s economy can be put right. I don’t expect that to be fixed for several decades.

What about all the dirty tricks pulled by Labor: No children overboard but children in the water, global warming when the temperature had decreased, stolen generation when none were identified and that’s just some. Labor and the media have no principles, never leave a lie untold or smear unspread.

A Greens supporter on Twitter saying “My God!”. Whoa, Nelly! Did he/she/it really said that? What’s the world going into? If it was “My Gaia!” it would’ve been believable. You’re slipping a bit, Timmy!

anti-coal activist Jonathan Moylan, who describes himself as a “Christian anarchist”,

Ask Mr Moylan what Jesus would call his deceitful actions. If he doesn’t come straight back with the word “sin” then Mr Moylan is no Christian.
Lies are never justified by calling yourself “Christian”. Christ said that they will know who you are by what you produce.

Thing is, I simply cannot understand why anyone thought second quarter returns for the mining tax would be anything other than zero. It’s an annual tax paid quarterly. If your liability is such that a quarter of it is zero, guess how much the other three quarters are going to be?